AAJ Statement on EPA Ban of Chrysotile Asbestos

Washington, DC —  The following is a statement from American Association for Justice CEO Linda Lipsen on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) announcement today that it will prohibit the use of chrysotile asbestos:
 
"Today’s announcement will help to rid our nation of deadly asbestos. We applaud the EPA and Biden Administration for this major step forward.
"Since the asbestos industry successfully overturned EPA’s 1989 asbestos ban, thousands of consumers and workers have died from unnecessary asbestos exposures. There is no safe form of asbestos and the only way to protect people’s health is a complete ban. While the rule announced today gives the industry years to comply, potentially endangering the health of additional workers, we hope that the industry will take seriously its duty to act as quickly as possible to comply with the new rule and limit all future exposures.
"For decades, the industry falsely claimed that chrysotile asbestos is not a threat to human health and vigorously fought against cases filed by workers exposed to chrysotile who developed mesothelioma. Indeed, EPA estimates that someone who performs one brake job every three years over their lifetime (a total of 20 brake jobs) faces an unreasonable asbestos cancer risk. EPA’s unequivocal finding that chrysotile asbestos exposure poses an unreasonable risk of mesothelioma puts those arguments to rest – finally."

CONTACT Carly Moore Sfregola Email: Carly.Sfregola@justice.org Phone: 202.684.9609